Monday, July 2, 2007

Kids Getting Bolder Younger!

During some recent research I asked 7- to 15-year-olds about theircomputing habits. At first I was astonished to discover that 100percent of my groups had access to a computer at home, but then Inoticed they talked in a manner that suggested they also had controlover the computer; the parents had little influence. I was expectingthe children to be enthusiastic in their usage of the computer butdidn't expect them to assume ownership, with the parents taking such aback seat.

Now, I don't want to fuel the more zealous child protectionists bysaying that children are running amok online without any control,because this wasn't the context of the research. What I learned wasthat children are using the computer to communicate, play, learn, andexplore; I hope and actually expect that most online enquiries areperfectly innocent—the vast majority of children really are notinterested in adult content. Youngsters are the pioneers; they arewatching and listening and then passing on what they find out. How elsecould AOL Instant Messenger, YouTube, or MySpace have become as big asthey are? Certainly adults wouldn't have recommended them.

Of course, the effects cannot just be seen online. All mobilecommunication innovations are driven by the teen generation and arepassed down to tweens, juniors, and infants. The mobile generation isdemanding and getting better-quality and quicker downloads, they areaccessing information where and when they like, and they are sharingthis with similar thinking individuals…

It is now a well-established fact that mobile phones are owned byyounger and younger people; it is not uncommon to see primary-schoolchildren with phones. What hasn't been accepted is that the same agegroups are now accessing their friends via the computer when they gethome and that the home computer is actually their tool—one that theyteach their parents how to use!

Young people, from teens down to the very young, have no fear oftechnology and are leading the way into the digital frontier; we needto be as bold in our understanding and communications.

Ok, so KGBY doesn't trip off the tongue as easily as KGOY, but it isapparent that KGBY is now a far more relevant barometer in gauging thebehavior and attitudes of today's children.